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Résumé :

Abstract Willibald Pirckheimer, a humanist from Nürnberg (1470–1530) is commonly regarded as a collector of manuscripts from the Corvinian library. This view, disseminated in handbooks, has not been ascertained with material evidence so far. The aim of this study is to identify two of the Greek manuscripts Pirckheimer used, according to his letters, for his various translations in Latin and German. The former suggestion that Oxford, Corpus Christi College, ms 284 (Eb5) was used for the translations of the letters of Basil the Great and Gregory of Nazianzus in 1528 by Opsopoeus and in 1532 by Erasmus as well as in 1516 for the Nilus’ sentences by Pirckheimer receives further support by the careful analysis of the manuscripts and the editions. It is argued, however, that the exemplar used for the epitome from St John Damascene is Bristish Library, Arundel, ms 528 instead of the Oxford ms. Moreover, it is demonstrated for the first time and with certainty that the exemplar used for the 1531 posthumus edition of Pirckheimer’s tranlations of the Homilies by Gregory of Nazianzus is the tenth-century manuscript of Vienna, ÖNB, suppl. gr. 177. The fact that the Arabic numbers copied in this ms as quire signatures appear identical with the ones copied in other Greek codies with alla Greca Corvina bindings demonstrates that ÖNB suppl. gr. 177 is an authentic Corvina with the strictest criteria.